Beep, bloop, boppity-beep goes the music. Jump, splat, zap go the Tiny Plumbers. Goombas didn’t burst into a shower of garish red pixels when Mario jumped on their bonces but otherwise, a quick look at this odd little indie platformer could have you thinking it’s little more than a tired spoof. There are even different suits to change into, pipes to travel through and princesses to rescue. However, beyond the obvious references, which are not simply aesthetic, there is plenty to discover. Most importantly, it’s not obvious from the trailer that the levels are procedurally generated. And wait ’til the sky police chase the hovering plumber, their sirens/screams drowning out everything and betokening doom.

Oddly, Love isn’t the only trippy single-programmer MMOG with an emphasis on player landscaping and building that’s currently in beta. There’s also Neverdaunt 8Bit, or N8, which swaps procedurally generated gorgeousity and lethal roaming AI for a retro aesthetic and plain old messing around. I took a closer look at both of them recently and find myself liking one an awful lot more than the other. Find out which after the jump.Read the rest of this entry »